May the 'Star Wars' geek be with you

(continued from previous page)

Indeed, the same people who would laugh at the prospect of someone who had seen the original movie 27 times have quite possibly seen it three or four times themselves. At the very least, they almost certainly know what "May the Force be with you" means and could tell you what color Luke Skywalker's lightsaber is--and if they can't recognize Darth Vader, they probably really have been living under rocks.

And when it comes to the "Star Wars Kid" video, who's really the true geek--the 14-year-old showing off his Jedi skills, or the hordes of casual Internet video watchers who saw a clip of a kid in khakis and a plaid shirt swinging around a golf ball retriever and immediately knew it was a Darth Maul impression?

"Star Wars is something that reaches across so many different cultural lines that I wouldn't say it's just something for geeks," said Chad Vader co-creator Sloan. "It's become so pervasive in the culture that it's become something more akin to mythology. It's so ingrained in everyone. Everyone knows what Star Wars is." So pervasive, in fact, that former President Ronald Reagan could name his missile defense program after it. (Could he have done that with anything from Star Trek?)

Mark Piccirelli, the operator of Star Wars news site YodasNews.com, agreed, bringing up a point that had been raised in a recent History Channel documentary about the phenomenon. "Everywhere in the world, you can say 'may the force be with you,' and someone knows what you're talking about," he said.

Piccirelli, who admits to having a 900-square-foot room in his house filled with Star Wars memorabilia, said that one of the greatest things about the franchise is that it can be enjoyed on so many levels.

"You don't really need to know anything to tell it's Star Wars. It's good versus evil. It's basic." And that's why everyone, not just the hard-core fans, can understand most of the countless Star Wars references in TV shows like The Simpsons and Family Guy. Plenty of Star Wars fans know the names of every kind of Imperial spacecraft, but they are by no means the only ones who laughed when Jennifer Aniston dressed up as Princess Leia in an episode of Friends.

Perhaps that's what makes Star Wars as unusual as it is. Few other movie franchises can boast both an iconic cinematic reputation (regardless of what you thought of the prequels) and a pop-culture legacy that puts just about every other "quotable" movie to shame. You could say that the Lord of the Rings series comes remotely close in the cultural imagination, but it's still nothing like Star Wars.

To top that off, Piccirelli says, the Star Wars hitmakers at Lucasfilm have a remarkable aptitude for keeping Star Wars newsworthy.

"You have the hard-core audience, which keeps anything going, but it seems like every time it starts to taper off, something else happens," he said. The last of the original Star Wars movies came out in 1983. But then there were the digitally remastered versions, novelizations and new lines of action figure tie-ins. "And then they made three more (movies)," Piccirelli added.

And considering this weekend's anniversary festivities will see details revealed regarding a new Star Wars TV show that will pop up in the next few years, it looks like the Star Wars momentum will keep on rolling.

[azareus]

incredible anniversary

Can you be a Stormtrooper?

An Imperial mash-up.
http://www.cognitivelabs.com/clonesmall.htm

[aaydogan]

Lucas: A Man of Varying Talents

Pluses: THX, ILM and an emphasis on standards for the
theatrical presentation of movies. Minus: A hack who couldn't
tell an original story to save his life. he has spent 30 years
telling the same hackneyed "story" to fewer and fewer viewers.

Let's celebrate his accomplishment, but his lack of film making
talent in perspective. Yes, he has made millions, but financial
success in not the true measure of one's art. Just look at
Spielberg, another ultra rich film maker who also suffers from
long bouts of artistic drought (Amblin and Jaws=creative,
brilliant film making, almost everything else=derivative, trite,
pure commercialism, the only exception being the brilliantly
cinematic beach landing scenes in Saving Private Ryan)